(left to right) Alexandra Bennett, Sarah C. Lo and Debra Rodkin in AstonRep Theatre Company’s production of ELEEMOSYNARY by Lee Blessing, co-directed by Derek Bertelsen and Jeremiah Barr. Photo by Emily Schwartz.

AstonRep Theatre Company has announced its 2017-18 Season, kicking off this fall with 1984, based on George Orwell’s classic novel, adapted for the stage by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr. and William A. Miles and directed by Artistic Director Robert Tobin. The season continues this winter with a FESTIVAL OF ONE ACTS BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, and concludes next summer with THE LARAMIE PROJECT, a response to the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, written by Moisés Kaufman and the Members of Tectonic Theater Project and directed by Associate Artistic Director Derek Bertelsen. The company will also produce the 9th ANNUAL WRITERS’ SERIES, a daylong festival of workshops from local and regional writers.

1984 and THE LARAMIE PROJECT will be staged at the Raven Theatre. Venues for the FESTIVAL ONE ACTS BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS and WRITER’S SERIES are to be announced.

AstonRep Theatre Company’s 2017-2018 Season (from the press release):

September 14 – October 8, 2017
1984
Adapted by Robert Owens, Wilton E. Hall Jr. & William A. Miles Jr.
From the novel by George Orwell
Directed by Artistic Director Robert Tobin
at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago

Based on the novel by George Orwell, 1984 is a terrifying and breathtaking view of a world controlled by a totalitarian government. Orwell asks what is left when freedom of speech, the press, love, and even the past are subject to authoritarian whims? Big Brother is watching. A theatrical event that is both powerful and disturbingly provocative.

Fall 2017
9TH ANNUAL WRITERS’ SERIES
Location to be announced.

A festival of talented local and regional writers who have an opportunity to workshop near-finished plays and works in development. Over the course of a day, five to seven new works are read by professional actors followed by focused talkback sessions – a time-honored celebration of artistic collaboration.

Winter 2018
FESTIVAL OF ONE ACTS BY TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Location to be announced.

AstonRep presents classic favorites and rarely seen works by one of the 20th Century’s greatest writers.

June 7 – July 8, 2018
THE LARAMIE PROJECT
at The Raven Theatre (West Stage), 6157 N. Clark St. in Chicago

The Laramie Project presents a deeply complex portrait of a community’s response to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man living in Laramie, Wyoming. In a series of poignant reflections, the residents of Laramie react to the hate crime and surrounding media storm with anger, bewilderment, and sorrow. The play portrays the seismic and deeply personal impact Matthew’s death had on this small town while also demonstrating the power of the human spirit to triumph over bigotry and violence. As we near the twentieth anniversary, Matthew Shepard’s story still reverberates, urging us on with its clarion call to confront the destructive power of bullying and hate, in all forms.